Esports: Pro video gaming explodes with big prize pots

Star video gamers now earn huge cash prizes and have legions of fans, just like in any other sport – and esports are only getting bigger

"GOOOAAAL!" The commentator almost flips over his seat, shouting at the top of his lungs. The crowd in the stands picks up the cry. Thumping speakers fill the arena with bombastic music and spotlights sweep the floor and walls. Just around the corner, the sound of machine-gun fire fills the air.

Welcome to G3, the biggest esports event ever staged in the UK. For two days earlier this month, the Copper Box arena at the London Olympic Park ditched basketball and badminton for video games. World champions at football simulator FIFA 14, lightning-quick strategy game StarCraft 2, and first-person shooters Call of Duty and Counterstrike battled it out for a share of the $140,000 prize pot. Four thousand fans filled the arena itself while more than 8.5 million watched live online.

Professional gaming has been big in countries like South Korea for more than a decade. When the national soccer team reached the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup, top StarCraft players were brought in to boost the squad's morale.

Now esports are exploding all over the world. Last month, for example, thousands of gamers descended on Las Vegas to compete in Evo 2014, an annual tournament for fighting games like Street Fighter and Tekken. A week later, a team at an event in Seattle bagged $5 million for triumphing in the fantasy-themed battle game, Defense of the Ancients 2 (see "Fire jets and glitter bombs").

Video games are no longer just a huge entertainment industry: the top players are superstars. If you go to a school and ask the kids if they know this or that player, says esports pundit and YouTube broadcaster Alastair Aiken, all of them would. "Give it five or 10 years and competitive gaming will become a standard sport."

Pro video gamers are no less dedicated than mainstream athletes, says Wyatt. To become the best golfer in the world you have to spend hour upon hour on the driving range. "These guys do exactly the same," he says. "There's no difference in skill level between these guys and the very best sportspeople in the world."

StarCraft is a case in point. As in chess, the object of the game is to defeat your opponent's army. Unlike chess, however, StarCraft doesn't involve players taking turns, and requires more complex resource management in that you must continually generate the pieces at your disposal as you play. To do as well as the pros, you must also achieve an extremely rapid rate of keyboard and mouse inputs. Some players carry out more than 300 such actions a minute, rising to 10 a second when up against it. Add in the need to think strategically and outwit your opponent by pre-empting their moves, and the top players start to look superhuman.

What's largely driving the esports boom is better video-streaming technology and faster internet connections, allowing fans to follow tournaments and their favourite players online. Streaming video of yourself playing at home is now an essential part of being a professional gamer, says Anthony "Nameless" Wheeler of Team EnVyUs, which took home $30,000 for winning the Call of Duty event at G3. "Live-streaming is our source of income," says Wheeler. "Winning is important because of the prize money, but that's prize money, not a salary. It's like a bonus."

Watching your favourite player talk you through their game is a unique attraction of esports, says Aiken. "If you had Usain Bolt giving an analysis of his own race people would love that," he says.

Live-streaming has created a new raft of celebrities, too. At G3, Aiken – known to his fans as Ali-A – can't walk more than a few steps without being swamped by teenagers. At one point he stops to sign an autograph and in less than a minute a queue forms that soon stretches around the arena.

Competitive gaming is becoming easier to try for yourself. In June, Gfinity launched a new website, Gfinity.net, for people to do just that. It functions like a social network for gamers, staging online competitions daily and awarding £30,000 in prize money each month. "We provide a route into professional gaming if that's what you want," says Wyatt.

The company also aims to run large-scale gaming tournaments in sporting arenas every couple of months. "If it continues growing at the same rate, events like G3 will be the norm," says Wyatt.

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